1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to portable fluid dispensers and more specifically to portable fluid dispensers that may incorporate a filter for improving the quality of the fluid imbibed therefrom.
2. Background Art
In parts of the world, preferred sources of clean water may be available from household taps or faucets supplied and monitored by local water utilities, or may be available from local wells or water containers or bottles purchased from local markets. In many cases, the cleanliness of the water is already sufficient and filtering is unnecessary. In other cases and in much of the world, the cleanliness of the water is questionable and light or heavy filtering may be needed. Thus, a user may opt to install a filtration system to improve the quality of water if desired and units are available and affordable. Given the health benefits of clean water and that local water sources are not always at the level of cleanliness demanded by consumers, the demand for transportable bottled water arose continues to rise as one solution to unclean source water. This is also true, however, even in areas with sources of clean tap water as some bottled water carries a certain prestige for or is a personal preference of consumers.
Typically such bottled water is packaged in the now ubiquitous portable plastic bottle with a removable cap or reciprocal valve and mouthpiece. In order to mass produce these plastic bottles and maintain a reasonable profit margin, these bottles are typically manufactured of an extremely thin-walled plastic material. The thin walls are easily punctured or the bottle may easily be deformed or crushed to the point of uselessness, particularly once the water is at least partially removed. It is also common for this type of bottle to crack or remain in a crushed configuration after only one or two uses. As a result, the durability of such plastic bottles is limited and these type of bottles are commonly thrown out after only one use.
In some instances, another problem arises if the bottles are also manufactured from a plastic containing the chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA). This chemical has relatively recently been determined as detrimental to human health, especially when the bottle is heated or deformed due to wear and tear as either event increases the likelihood that the hazardous chemical may leach into the water contained in the bottle. In addition to the thin-walled drawbacks, this further increases the incentive not to re-use any plastic water bottles containing such a chemical causing consumers to continually purchase new water bottles.
With the relatively recent introduction of the BPA-free plastics for plastic bottles, this problem is alleviated somewhat but other problems remain from the use of the thin-walled plastic bottles. Even though the bottle may be BPA free, the lack of durability contributes to disposing the bottles on a more regular basis. Accordingly, even as the demand for bottled water increases, there is also an opposite push for reducing the amount of landfill waste resulting from the disposal of the plastic bottles. While recycling does somewhat address this issue, it remains an imperfect system as participation is often voluntary or loosely enforced and is not a universal approach to the problem. Recycling also does nothing to reduce the demand for bottled water in the first place.
In addition to the frequent disposal and related landfill issues, when a preferred clean water source is not available, as is the case in many countries, or such as commonly occurs during local or long-distance travel, the need for a personal water carrier becomes paramount as other more local water sources such as water fountains, faucets, streams, lakes, and the like may be questionable, unavailable, or undesirable, especially if there is no filter in place. This need for clean transportable water is the primary motivation that fuels the consumer demand for bottled water. However, this rising demand for transportable, bottled water products continues to be at odds with the environmental push for recycling to reduce land fill waste and also for reducing the dependency and need on oil-based plastic products. There is also the cost associated with the energy to manufacture and transport the bottled water, often touted as being derived from remote pristine locations. Thus, a multi-prong approach to reduce the demand for bottled water stored in disposable or limited use plastic bottles and to reduce the amount of landfill waste is needed.
One approach is to use a personal water bottle that is both BPA-free and constructed of a more rigid, crush-resistant, plastic or metallic material that can better withstand the rigors of travel. The user may also install a filter at home to further purify the preferred water source if desired. The rigid-walled plastic or metallic bottles may be filled up at the preferred source and transported as needed. Given the higher strength of these rigid materials, the use of these hard plastic or metallic bottles does reduce the demand for thin-walled mass produced plastic bottles somewhat and the corresponding landfill waste since bottles may be re-used for longer periods of time but such rigid bottles still have drawbacks.
More specifically, these inflexible, rigid walled bottles do not accommodate a filter component and thus a separate external filter component must be carried if filtering is desired. Once the water runs out that was filled from the original preferred source, a problem arises if the user is no longer near the original preferred source and the local water source is less than desirable and requires filtering and no filtering unit is available. Thus, the user is at the mercy of the local water source that may or may not be suitable for drinking or less healthy at any rate. Transporting a filled water carrier may also be an imposition on the user at certain events or locations such as concerts, sporting events, or the airport where the fluid and/or container must be disposed of before entering the venue.
Another category of personal water carrier is a soft-walled bottle. These bottles are typically formed of a softer plastic and may be deformed by squeezing the flexible sidewalls of the bottle to force fluid out through a mouthpiece. In addition, the soft-walled bottles may accommodate the use of a filter component that is typically connected inline with the mouthpiece as, for example, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,362 to Nohren, Jr. et al. With such a bottle, the user may squeeze the sidewalls of the bottle together to force water through the filter and out the mouthpiece.
While U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,362 also discloses the use of a filter with a purportedly relatively rigid plastic bottle, it is clear that a “relatively” rigid plastic bottle would have to be somewhat flexible or deformable or there would be no additional boost to the flow rate through the filter and the user would have to rely solely on gravity or their own sucking force to draw water out of the bottle through the filter. This is clearly a drawback of an inflexible rigid walled container and may render the bottle quite useless or frustrate the user if the filter flow rate is relatively low which may be expected with a useful filter. Given the foregoing, the relatively rigid bottle described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,165,362 is likely either completely rigid or relatively inflexible and therefore a poor design, especially when a relatively limited amount of water remains in the bottle relative to the bottle volume, or such bottle must be constructed and behave as if a soft-walled bottle with sufficiently flexible sidewalls to enable the sidewalls of the bottle to be squeezed together to force fluid through the filter for a greater fluid flow rate and thus has the drawbacks of soft-walled bottles as discussed below.
While these soft-walled bottles incorporating a filter do last longer than a mass produced thin-walled bottle and decrease the need for limited use disposable thin-walled water bottles and the amount of landfill, the soft-walls have some drawbacks as well. Primarily, these soft-walled bottles are not as rugged as the hard-walled bottles and are prone to puncturing, scratching, cracking, or wearing out over relatively short period of time. In addition, the ability to deform the entire sidewalls from of the containers from top to bottom may put the integrity of the filter at risk. Soft-walled bottles are also not constructed to withstand a significant amount of compressive force and may collapse if stored inappropriately. Thus, while these bottles are suitable for many purposes, these bottles do not handle the rigors of travel or last as long as hard-walled bottles. In addition, it is common to use a three-stage filter to eliminate viruses, particulate, and organisms, a thus a relatively strong grip or even two hands may be needed to force fluid through the filter. While useful in certain scenarios, the three-stage filter may be more than needed in many scenarios and continued use may be fatiguing to the user.
Given the drawbacks of personal fluid dispenser technology, there exists a need for a reusable portable fluid dispenser with the preferred capability of improving water quality at any place and any time a water source is available while better withstanding the rigors of travel.